Title

Author

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Hispanic Studies

Supervisor

Victoria Wolff

Abstract

It has been discussed that the manipulation of the image of the afrodiasporic communities in Nineteenth Century travel narratives accounts for the implementation of certain ideological practices when they were intended to be narrated. This thesis argues that the depiction of the afrodiasporic experience functions as a dual and ambiguous mechanism in which the textual incorporation of the population entails at the same time their exclusion. However, it not only reflects on the representation of black people; it also seeks to explore this ambivalence within the contact zones as well as the discursive patterns used to depict them during the interaction. These and other issues are problematized through the exploration of travel accounts written by twelve travelers around four main components: power relations (victimization stories); corporality (intersections between body ethics / aesthetics ideals); archaism / modernity (civilization / barbarism), and voices / silences (presences / absences).